“world’s first food and nutrition ... - uwi st. augustine · pdf fileof the uwi...

STAR STUDENTS – 18

Mt Hope Art Society Mending the Children’s Ward

IN MEMORIAM – 12

Professorof Poetry

A Tribute ToDerek Walcott

UWI IN SOCIETY – 09

Students at Risk School Substance Abuse

AGRIman inspects some fruit at the techAGRI Expo 2017. The “world’s first food and nutrition superhero”, as he is called by creator Alpha Sennon of the NGO WHYFARM, AGRIman was on hand at the expo to promote agriculture among the youth. techAGRI, a massive event, was held at the Admin West Field of the UWI St. Augustine Campus to be a showcase of “innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialisation” in the local food industry. The Faculty of Food and Agriculture event ran from March 24 to 26 and included a host of T&T-made, food-based products such as coffee, chocolates, soaps, seasonings and many others. Attendees, including several school groups, enjoyed interactive tours of the technologies and processes of the FFA, and were able to sample and purchase fresh produce from UWI farms, as well as delicacies from the daily food village. UWI St. Augustine has made the revitalisation of local agriculture a mission for the campus, seeing it as a critical and viable industry for the development of a diversified, export-driven economy. For more on techAGRI Expo 2017see pages 10 and 11 of this issue. PHOTO: KEYON MITCHELL

HISTORY FEST 2017 – 14

Turmoil in Trinidad Indentureship,

Shouter Baptists, World War I

Adventure inAGRICULTURE

SUNDAY 23 APRIL, 2017 – UWI TODAY 3

Re-energisingAGRICULTURE Back to our roots

Every society goes through at least one moment when its challenges expose the need for drastic change. Some thrive and rise above the challenges, others falter, and unfortunately, many are unable to achieve the cultural, social and economic transformations.

Trinidad and Tobago had such a moment at the dawn of independence as it faced the challenge of designing its future. Post-independence, national planners advanced a strategy for industrial development built on rents to come from the oil and gas sectors. At that time the energy sector accounted for 80% of exports and 28% of Government revenue.

The plan came to fruition with the formation of the National Gas Company in 1975 and the establishment of the Point Lisas Industrial Estate in 1980, now the largest such estate in the Caribbean. This occurred in the nick of time, just as a drop in global oil prices triggered a prolonged economic recession. Described as a bold move by experts, the Trinidad and Tobago model for gas monetisation has been a major contributor to its prosperity. It established a template for nations such as Ghana and Tanzania to follow. One of its side effects however, was its contribution to what some call “Dutch disease,” reflected in this instance to less attention paid to, and the consequent decline in the economic role of agriculture.

Here we are again at a crucial moment in our history faced with an economic downturn, social instability and an uncertain global environment. As we grapple with this new normal, we face the irony that one of the solutions to recovery may actually mean going back to where our economy started, that is, with agriculture. This is in keeping with Caribbean Nobel Laureate Sir Arthur Lewis’ industrialisation strategy, articulated 60 years ago. Agriculture, and the value chain of a well-articulated food production sector, can open up enormous opportunities for enhancing food security and powering the region out of the current economic recession. However, like the Trinidad and Tobago Gas Model, the Agriculture and Food Production Model requires new ideas, innovation and new technology for it to significantly result in the kind of diversified and resilient society that Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean will need to thrive in the changing global environment. The agriculture sector now contributes very little to national GDP, a consequence, in part, of a culture that has become far too reliant on a multi-billion-dollar food import industry. Most importantly, initiatives to date for making the nation food secure are nowhere near fruition.

Two of the country’s major players have begun accelerating the revitalisation of agriculture and food production. In early March, I led a team of UWI experts in a meeting with Senator the Honorable Clarence Rambharat, the Minister of Agriculture. This was an opportunity to engage the Minister on a host of issues and express the university’s desire to work more closely with Government to explore agriculture solutions and create opportunities

PROFESSOR BRIAN COPELANDCampus Principal

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

EDITORIAL TEAM

CAMPUS PRINCIPALProfessor Brian Copeland

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONSDr Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill

EDITOR (Ag.)Joel Henry

CONTACT USThe UWI Marketing and Communications Office

Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997 or email: [email protected]

for the nation. The Minister himself expressed interest in collaboration so that we could “avoid overlaps and duplication, maximise the use and deployment of our respective resources,” and “face the farming and fishing communities with one purpose.” The University looks forward to future collaborations that must also include the agribusiness subsector for forging the “triple helix” of government, business and academia that world experience has shown to be necessary for a robust and sustainable agriculture sector.

In the triple helix, The UWI will bring to the table innovations, new technology, technical assistance, education and training. The private sector will support with capital, market insight, and manufacturing and distribution expertise. The State will be the overall facilitator since it provides incentive programmes and strategic interventions. State intervention can reduce the bureaucratic bottlenecks that hinder business development. This triple helix partnership will engender focus, vigilance, productivity and solvency, all necessary to transform our social economy.

In March, The UWI held the techAGRI Expo 2017, an event of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture to raise the profile of agriculture and to familiarise the nation with the opportunities for innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialisation in the sector. The Expo offered, inter alia, lab tours, display and sale of farm produce, visits to the National Herbarium which is physically located in the Faculty, demonstrations of chocolate making, appropriate hydroponic systems, as well as other examples of agricultural innovation that can be adopted locally. Judging by the large crowds of secondary students and members of the public, it was a huge success! techAGRI Expo 2017 was spearheaded by Dr. Wayne Ganpat, the Dean of the Faculty, who has long been a specialist and advocate in the area of Agricultural Economics and Extension. I join with the rest of the UWI team in congratulating Dr. Ganpat and all staff of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture for this success.

The Expo brought back memories of the early days of the Faculty of Agriculture and the even earlier days of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), its predecessor. ICTA was responsible for instruction, research and advisory in agriculture throughout the British Empire; it was recognised as the world leader in research on pests and diseases of tropical crops, plant genetics, soil chemistry and soils science. Indeed, I am told, and yet to verify, that the Florida citrus industry owes a lot to the work done at ICTA. Although the original focus of ICTA was on export crops such as cocoa, sugarcane, bananas for the UK for further processing, it later started to address issues related to local food crops. Its R&D prowess was, nonetheless, unquestionable. The capability that once existed must now be re-energised and harnessed for the benefit of the people of the Caribbean.

I cannot end without mention of Sir Derek Walcott, one of the Caribbean’s greatest sons, who passed away on March 17, 2017. One could easily write a thousand words about his accomplishments. Even the outpouring of sentiment from around the globe after his passing, does not fully reflect the extent of his acclaim. I wish to highlight a more intimate Walcott, our Walcott, who made it his mission to help the people of the Caribbean find their identity. That was the invaluable gift he bestowed upon us, a gift we must honour by going out into the world in confidence and power, strengthening our reputation, just as he did. May he rest in peace and may this legacy of daring and confidence be an example to future generations.

4 UWI TODAY – SUNDAY 23 APRIL, 2017

CAMPUS NEWS

Meeting Adversity with EngagementB Y J O E L H E N R Y

“Education is about survival,” said Professor Brian Copeland, Pro Vice-Chancellor and St. Augustine Campus Principal, as he reported to the 2017 Campus Council.

He was, in one statement, emphasising both the adversity faced by the Caribbean, and the critical role that The UWI has to play in overcoming it. In his report, Professor Copeland spoke as more than a Campus Principal. His message was that of a regional thought leader on education, innovation and national development, and the measures he advocated went far beyond the boundaries of the St. Augustine Campus.

“We must change our culture into one that is more innovative. We must increase the ability to develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for international markets. This really speaks to an agenda for our education system. It’s not just about teaching. It is about the kind of person that you are building, a person who is looking for opportunity and can go after it. Notice I haven’t spoken about The UWI. This is the education system.”

Every year the four campuses of The UWI host a Campus Council meeting to present the annual and financial reports for the most recently completed period to the Council, the University’s governing body. The 2017 Campus Council for St. Augustine, held on March 20 at the Teaching and Learning Complex, was Professor Copeland’s first, having been appointed Campus Principal in April 2016. He was not timid in his presentation.

The theme of the annual report for the St. Augustine Campus is “Engage” and Professor Copeland’s Campus Council report outlined an ambitious strategy for engagement with the society for sustainable growth, development and innovation. He pointed to the necessity for the society to implement the “Triple Helix” model – close collaboration between higher education, government and industry – to create an environment for innovative, foreign exchange-earning SMEs.

In this new environment, the St. Augustine Campus would expand its remit beyond education, outreach and research to also include “aggressive revitalisation initiatives

Professor Copeland outlined four activities beginning this year to push his agenda forward: a Centre for Export and Innovation to provide an ecosystem for innovation based export-oriented companies, curriculum and pedagogical reform, cultural renewal of the campus community and the creation of a Faculty of Sport. PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM

for the Caribbean.” Professor Copeland outlined four activities beginning this year to push his agenda forward. These include the establishment of a Centre for Export and Innovation to provide an ecosystem for innovation based export-oriented companies, curriculum and pedagogical reform, cultural renewal of the campus community and the creation of a Faculty of Sport, an idea first advanced by Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.

In his remarks, Sir Hilary said he fully endorsed the concept of engagement and it was in line with The UWI’s strategic goal of “Alignment” laid out in the University’s Strategic Plan 2017-2022.

“We must engage all of our stakeholders and align our interests with theirs because we are here to serve,” Sir Hilary said. “Our regional university was built and funded to serve this region. And this is what we must always do with our full might.”

The Vice-Chancellor also commended Professor Copeland for his service as Campus Principal during this challenging period of economic difficulty for the region and by extension the University.

In his report on the 2015-2016 period, Professor Copeland outlined several efficiency and cost-cutting measures taken by the Campus to cope with the loss of 15% of its funding from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. He also spoke on St. Augustine’s many successes during the period: high-achieving students, new appointments and campus initiatives to better serve the national and regional communities. The Campus Principal provided statistics on student population, enrolment and graduation, as well as numbers related to financial performance.

At Campus Council 2017 special mention was given to Professor Clement Sankat, who served as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal of the St. Augustine Campus from 2008 to 2016.

“I would like to place on record the Council’s appreciation for the sterling service and leadership provided by our former principal, Professor Clement Sankat,” said Campus Council Chairman Mr. Ewart Williams.

Campus Council Chairman Mr. Ewart Williams, second from left, leads the discussion.

CAMPUSCOUNCIL

2017

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles addresses the Council as Deputy Principal Professor Rhoda Reddock looks on


UWI IN SOCIETY

ABOVE BOARDWhy to be effective ‘T&T’s corporate governance Code’ must be a national policy

B Y K I R K F R A N C O I S

In Trinidad and Tobago, we have frequently read about billions of dollars lost by compromised or ineffective agencies and lax regulatory officials. A potent example of this is the controversial LifeSport programme, as well as the ongoing financial burden on the Government because of the failure of CL Financial. The wear and tear upon the economy of Trinidad and Tobago by these episodes and their political fall-out has taken a financial and moral toll on the country. How do we stop it? An increasing number of policymakers and academics point to corporate governance.

We regularly hear about the importance of corporate governance. Government officials and politicians proffer it as the means through which citizens will receive improved services and better accountability from State-owned enterprises. The beauty of corporate governance is in its simplicity. It is the system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. Though basic in its meaning, proper systems and practices can stymie the onslaught of problems that often infect a State organisation, since corruption breeds in an environment of lax regulations and poor internal controls.

“A country that implements a strong corporate governance policy can experience increased performance and efficiency, greater accountability and transparency to the public as well as a reduction in negative public perception of corruption,” says Dr. Vindel Kerr, an internationally recognised scholar and practitioner in the field of corporate governance.

Of his 24 years’ corporate experience, he has spent 15 at the senior management level and the last decade improving the effectiveness of corporate boards through learning and development, management consulting and advisory services. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at UWI’s Department of Management Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, where he teaches Business Ethics and supervises and mentors students.

Dr. Kerr says that a country that has established a strong corporate governance framework can expect to enjoy an enhanced international reputation, which facilitates increased investor confidence. This translates tangibly into high levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), increased access to international financing, higher ratings from credit rating agencies and the reduced likelihood of being sanctioned or placed on a negative

list. He argues that the importance of corporate governance rests in that it builds trust between the country and international donors, investors and agencies.

According to Dr. Kerr, one of the major elements for a successful corporate governance framework is that it must originate as a national policy imperative. “Without a policy crafted and implemented by the Government, Trinidad and Tobago’s corporate governance goals will remain elusive.”

He argues that all relevant stakeholders must be part of the creation of this policy, stressing that it must be administered by a state institution that has the ability to carry out and enforce its provisions.

Back in 2014, in an interview with a local newspaper, Dr. Kerr listed the failures and gaps in local corporate governance. Three years later, in 2017, Prime Minister Keith Rowley opened a symposium on corporate governance on January 18. However, Dr. Kerr insists that the situation remains the same.

He argues that the code in Trinidad and Tobago did not emerge as a national policy, but was initiated from private individuals with good intentions, who had an interest in this area.

“The Government of Trinidad and Tobago did not lead this initiative and therefore this code does not touch on key areas that corporate governance should cover,” he says, pointing out that local corporate governance codes has been largely borrowed from developed countries with different legal systems.

Dr. Kerr elaborated on other elements necessary for a strong corporate governance policy. It should focus on issues regarding the formulation of good governance, which include the understanding of the roles of the directors of the board, the management and corporate secretary. The seeds of corruption are planted when there is a lack of understanding of the critical roles played by members of the board.

Many issues of impropriety and inefficiency stem from the composition and dysfunctionality of some State boards. Dr. Kerr explained that some of these frequent pitfalls include directors’ too frequent involvement in the day-to-day activities of the organisation and inappropriate channels of communications.

Corporate governance should also address a critical error that occurs among the composition of a board; lack of a board containing the right mix of skills and competence among their membership. Many boards are selected with little attention paid to ensuring that its members possess required skills such as auditing, financial, legal and business-specific training and experience.

Corruption breeds freely in such environments where directors act in matters they should not and usurp authority to conduct activities outside of their duties.

Delving into the history of the formation of the corporate framework in Jamaica, Dr. Kerr noted that one of the main catalysts that forced Jamaica into the strong position that it holds today with regard to corporate governance, is that Jamaica survived a severe financial crisis that devastated over 100 of its financial institutions. Such a crisis led Jamaica to the international financial institutions that mandated the country implement strong corporate governance policies.

Trinidad and Tobago, by comparison, has not endured such a burden, which may explain why we have not been driven to create a national policy.

“The failure of CL Financial and the Hindu Credit Union do not count as a financial crisis,” he says.

It’s a grim thought. Although no one wishes for a financial crisis, it may very well take one to ensure that Trinidad and Tobago can forge a national corporate governance policy that will once and for all rid our county of the unnecessary burdens of corruption.

Kirk Francois is a freelance writer.

Dr. Vindel KerrPHOTO: ANEEL KARIM


CAMPUS NEWS

St. Augustine recognisesONE OF THE REGION’S

GREATEST SONSOn March 17, 2017, Sir Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright, dramatist, artist, critic and cultural and political commentator passed away at his home in St. Lucia. The St. Augustine Campus community joined with many others from around the globe to recognise this Caribbean giant who had such a powerful and lasting impact on the region and its art.

Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland said Walcott was “a true Caribbean man, whose ties to Trinidad and Tobago in particular are familial and collegiate.” He also extended deepest condolences on behalf of the Campus to his family, in particular his two daughters, Professor Elizabeth Hackshaw, Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and Senior Lecturer, French Modern Languages and Linguistics, and Anna Walcott-Hardy, former Communications Manager and Editor of the “STAN” magazine.

On April 3, the Alma Jordan Library launched a three-week exhibition, “A Glimpse into the Derek Walcott Collection.” The exhibition includes his correspondences; illustrations and paintings; and poetry, plays, essays and films.

St. Augustine students of the UWI Socialist Student Conference commemorated Walcott and his work at a lunchtime gathering on March 20 titled “Derek Walcott and Our Caribbean: Bring Yuh Poems Dem and Come”.

Walcott had an outstanding relationship with The UWI. In 2010 he was honoured by the University through a showcase of his work at a conference entitled “Interlocking Basins of a Globe.” In 2014 he launched the Derek Walcott Theatre Arts Scholarship, an annual award for theatre arts students.

“A firm decision with respect to what aspect of UWI teaching and learning will be relocating to the Penal-Debe Campus has NOT yet been decided.”

These were the words in a statement from UWI St. Augustine. The statement, issued on March 29, was in response to dissatisfaction from students of the Law Faculty, which was designated to move to the South campus in January 2018. On March 20, 2017, Law students held a campus protest against the move.

The press statement acknowledged that the Penal-Debe project was three years overdue but explained that the committee responsible for operationalising the campus has been reconstituted. The new committee, it said, would be made up of all stakeholders, including students:

“An Operationalisation Committee was reconvened which comprised representatives from all stakeholder groups, including key administrative departments and the President of the Guild of Students. This Committee will be expanded to include additional student representatives, for example, the Head of the Law Society, as well as other faculty student leaders.”

The statement added that: “all students, by way of the Guild of Students, are statutorily part of every decision-making body at UWI.”

Reiterating that students and staff were the primary stakeholders of UWI St. Augustine, the official statement said any move to the new campus would take place “when there is an appropriate academic ecosystem”, fully connected to St. Augustine and fully equipped with student amenities.

“The final decision on what happens at the South Campus will be guided by an assessment of how The UWI could best utilise the South Campus to maximise return on the public investment in its development,” it said.

UWI St. Augustine embarked upon the plan for the Penal-Debe Campus in 2011with the goal of increasing university access for under-served communities in Trinidad and Tobago. Set on a 100-acre piece of land, the site was once used for sugar cane cultivation and is accessible from the East, West, North and South.

Meeting with the Agriculture MinisterSenator Clarence Rambharat, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries (right), speaks with Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland (centre) and Dr. Wayne Ganpat, Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture. The Minister paid a March 8 visit to the campus to discuss topics that included youth in agriculture, the cocoa industry, land management and others. The meeting also included a team from the Ministry, representatives from the FAO, IICA, CARDI and the Cocoa Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago. The UWI team included senior administration, deans, department heads and faculty members involved in the campus food and agriculture-based study and research. In recent years UWI St. Augustine has intensified its work in the area of food and agriculture, seeing it as a prime industry for innovation, commercialisation and diversification of the economy. Professor Copeland has also made engagement with the wider society and closer university-government-industry cooperation a major priority of his tenure.

Campus Leadership PromisesStudent Representation inPenal-Debe Decision

PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM

ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN JAMES


NATIONAL SECURITY

Generally, when people think about alleviating crime and violence in Trinidad and Tobago they place full responsibility on the Police Service.

But a group of social sciences and criminology experts at a recent Roundtable Power Forum on Policing says that thinking has to change.

They contend that the violence plaguing the nation can only be addressed if the various sectors, including the general public, collaborate to address the root causes of crime. Social science techniques and research also have a crucial role to play in modern policing.

Hosted at the Learning Resource Centre at The UWI St. Augustine Campus, the discussion was part of the 3rd Biennial Department of Behavioural Sciences Postgraduate Research Conference, an event focusing on the importance of interdisciplinary social science research in the Caribbean.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a country experiencing homicide rates in excess of 10 murders per 100,000 inhabitants is defined as an area of violence epidemics.

“This places the Americas, including Trinidad and Tobago, as the most violent region in the world,” said Ms. Elizabeth Solomon, Visiting Research Fellow from the Institute of International Relations. She added that Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for one-third of the world’s homicides, yet fewer than 10% of its population.

Ms. Solomon said that while prevention plays a vital role in stemming violence there must also be a comprehensive strategy and framework for dealing with unconventional (non-war) conflicts and their ensuing violence:

“Reactionary and aggressive law enforcement approaches have not been successful. The threat of bringing back hangings is not an appropriate response and it will not work.”

Commissioner of Police (Ag.) Stephen Williams confirmed that Trinidad and Tobago has been experiencing a violence epidemic for “many, many years” with the murder rate reaching an all-time high of 547 in 2008. However, he said that a recent change in the policing model from reactionary to proactive “where we are out there to serve the public before they call for service” has caused crime statistics to trend downwards.

The CoP advised that the occurrence of serious crimes, those that cause the greatest harm and carry a penalty of five years or more, has been slashed in half since peaking at 22,162 in 2009, to 11,493 in 2016. Whereas the violent crimes statistics – murders, shootings, woundings, rape, kidnappings, and robberies – was 4,215 in 2015 and 4,294 in 2016, the lowest results in 18 years.

He credited the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s (TTPS) new, people-centred perspective, coupled with

its adoption of an “evidence-based policing” approach and the hard work of police officers for these significant successes, adding that the TTPS seeks to incorporate social science research and experiments to guide its policing efforts.

The roundtable panel, which included Director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West and Justice Gillian Lucky, agreed that public safety is a shared responsibility which must be borne by Government, law enforcement agencies, the private sector, the public and the independent media.

“The key to success is collaboration... to address the situation in our country. The Police Service cannot do it alone. We need everyone, everybody to be on board,” said CoP Williams. He emphasised the importance of law-abiding citizens doing their part to address the violence epidemic, “You can’t stand on the side and expect things to happen for you. And many times you don’t just stand on the side. You actively contribute through some negligent kinds of action.”

Ms. Solomon said that an integrated security and social sciences approach based on interdisciplinary research that addresses social inequality and impunity is the only appropriate response to addressing unconventional conflicts.

“Violence is not a chronic problem. It can be solved,” she said. Justice Lucky recommended a change in the traditional approach to recruitment and training, saying that police officers should not speak of themselves as having “powers” but as performing functions: “Because when they speak about their functions it will change and transform the whole way the public embraces them. My function is to protect and serve with pride. It is not a power, it is a function.”

The former head of the PCA said she was confident that the TTPS could be fixed and transformed to be “better, stronger and more efficient”. As part of that metamorphosis, she suggested the service adopt its own watchwords: “Disciplined, Productive and Reliable.”

David West spoke of the need for effective communication, mutual respect and trust in the relationship between the PCA and the TTPS as the two agencies work together to weed out rogue elements within the police service.

“As the public must trust the Police, the Police must trust us. Police officers who work within the law have nothing to fear as the PCA wants to make the TTPS great again and to restore public confidence which is being threatened,” he said.

Titled “The Importance of Interdisciplinary Research in the Caribbean: Alleviating Inequalities/Integrating Approaches,” the Conference was held from March 22 to 23 and included sessions on security (regional and local), gender and sexuality, community development, diplomacy and research.

Ending T&T’sCRIME EPIDEMIC IS A JOB FOR ALL

B Y L I S A O W E N

Professor John Agard, Director of the Office of Research Development and Knowledge Transfer, gave the keynote address.

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams

Justice Gillian Lucky

“The CoP advised that the occurrence of serious crimes, those that cause the greatest harm and carry a penalty of five years or more, has been slashed in

half since peaking at 22,162 in 2009, to 11,493 in 2016.”

Lisa Owen is a communications specialist, writer and editor.

PHOTOS: ANEEL KARIM


CAMPUS ACTIVISM

“When you can see yourself from a place of power you can transform your reality.” This was one of the highlights of Maya land rights activist Cristina Coc’s message during her keynote address at “Indigenous Geographies and Caribbean Feminisms: Common Struggles Against Global Capitalism” on March 31. Following her address, Coc was joined on stage by women who also hailed from her native Belize, representing Garifuna and other communities. The impromptu gathering was an emotional demonstration of solidarity after Coc called for candid discussions about racism and prejudice among people of colour. Her supporters were moved to tears by her struggles as an activist.

Coc spoke about “Dignified Rebellion,” on the ways in which indigenous peoples and African descendants in the Caribbean and Latin America have been pitted against each other by colonial powers historically. She called for an end to this division and for unity in resistance to injustice. “All over the world, all throughout history, people have engaged in countless struggles for their dignity, for equality, for respectful and just societies, for democratic power relations; basically, for a liveable planet. We can draw the lines between these struggles as if the struggles were separate, affecting distinct social groups. But the distinction would be false. Our struggle is for a better world. One that is more just and where there exists the possibility for many worlds. In this sense, there has only ever been one struggle,” said Coc.

Coc’s address was filled with poignant, passionate anecdotes of her work with the Maya Leadership Alliance (MLA) and the indigenous rights advocacy organisation, Julian Cho Society, of which she is founder and director. Since the 1990s, the Maya people of Belize have been embroiled in a battle for recognition of their land rights. Coc provided testimony for the MLA and became a spokesperson for the organisation when in 2006 the Belizean government granted a US company rights to conduct seismic testing for oil on Maya land without consultation. The battle continued until 2015 with Coc even being briefly imprisoned.

To her, the battle was about more than land rights. “In Maya culture our identity is defined this way: to

CIVILSOCIETY

Our struggle is for a better worldB Y Z A H R A G O R D O N

belong. It is a sense of belonging often tied to land and I hear my Afro-descendant sisters grappling with identity because we do have an identity crisis and it is a colonial construct that caused it. I’m neither here nor there because for 500 years we’ve been told that our identity is no good, that being indigenous, being tribal is savage and backwards. So we’ve lost our sense of belonging,” she said. “When I talk about our fight to secure our customary land tenure and for recognition of our way of life, I’m not talking about land at all. I’m talking about seeing a marginalised group of people as equal and dignified. Not as ‘those people’ or ‘the other’ but as a part of this human race.”

“In Maya culture you belong to the land, you belong to Mother Earth, you belong to your community and you belong to future generations. That sense of belonging is what has connected my people to this piece of land that we so passionately struggle for recognition of our rights on that land. So our struggle has not been about challenging the State and the courts, but we’ve used the courts, we’ve used the letter of the law – a tool of the colony – to affirm our rights.”

Coc thanked The UWI for engaging in the important conversation surrounding indigenous land rights, women’s rights and activism. She said the “Indigenous Geographies and Caribbean Feminisms” symposium was a “gift” to many indigenous voices.

The three-day symposium was hosted at The UWI from March 30 to April 1. It was organised by the Institute of Gender and Development Studies in partnership with the Department of Geography. The event was also supported by the Antipode Foundation. Participants included representatives of indigenous communities, scholars and activists from Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Honduras, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The symposium included workshops on women’s empowerment, methods for confronting contemporary colonialism and environmental protection. The symposium also recognised the work of Honduran indigenous and environmental activist, Berta Caceres. Caceres was assassinated last year.

“When I talk about our fight to secure our customary land tenure and for recognition of our way of life,I’m not talking about land at all. I’m talking about seeing a marginalised group of people as equal and dignified.”

Cristina Coc has been an activist with the Maya Leadership Alliance since 2003. She has worked in particular with the Maya communities in Toledo, southern Belize and was crucial to their winning the landmark case on Maya land rights in 2007 and again in 2015. Coc was educated at the St. John’s College, Junior College in Belize and also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Minnesota. In 2015, Coc and other members of the MLA were awarded the Equator Prize for advocacy on indigenous rights.

Zahra Gordon is an award-winning, Caribbean-American poet and writer. Read more of her work at zeespeakstt.wordpress.com.

PHOTOS: MARIA NUNES


UWI IN SOCIETY

This past March a horrific video went viral online of a group of students from the Mayaro Composite Secondary School savagely beating another student, leaving her unconscious in a drain. It was the latest in a trend of news stories, more than one exploding first on social media, showing students engaged in dysfunctional behaviours such as violence, vandalism and sexual activity. As the society grapples with the causes behind these incidents a team from The UWI is looking at a very specific risk factor – substance abuse.

“The high use of alcohol and other drugs by students, exacerbated by the apparent easy access to the substances is a cause for serious concern,” states the overview document for a one-day workshop to help professionals recognise and treat the young people abusing alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and hard drugs.

The statistics are stark. “In Trinidad and Tobago, the prevalence of current alcohol use among students overall is 42.5%. The prevalence of lifetime drug use was 13.6%,” says Dr. Emmanuel Janagan Johnson, Lecturer and Coordinator in the Social Work Unit of the Department of Behavioural Sciences.

The workshop, “Strategies for the prevention of drug abuse and trauma amongst adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago”, was hosted by the Social Work Unit on March 21 at the Faculty of Social Sciences Lounge. Participants were made up primarily of professional social workers from Government ministries, schools, medical institutions and other areas dealing with youth. They learned about the heavy toll of substance abuse on young lives.

“There are many negative outcomes,” Dr. Johnson says. He outlines signs and symptoms such as trauma, troubled relationships, thinking problems, emotional pain and risky behaviour. Aggressive and violent behaviour are also symptoms of substance abuse and could be playing a role in incidents that not only spill out of the school but can also lead to serious injury and death. On March 29 it was reported that a 14- and 15-year old student from the Barrackpore East Secondary School “savagely beat” a taxi driver who refused to pick them up. The week before, the body of a 16-year-old was found in a drain just outside the compound of the Waterloo Secondary School.

But what is causing students as young as nine (the average age is 13) to start abusing substances?

“There are several factors, starting with the family,” Dr. Johnson says. “A recent study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Trinidad reports that students’ first exposure to drinking alcohol was by family members in childhood or experimentation later.”

Families may either be permissive in allowing children to abuse substances or indoctrinate them into a culture in which substances are frequently used. Alternatively, families in which the child has poor supervision contribute to substance abuse. In these instances other factors, such as peer group, easy access and the omnipresence of advertising and marketing that promotes substances, can have a greater impact.

“Substances are everywhere. These children have busy parents. I know parents who drop their children to school in the morning and do not see them until late in the evening. The children barely see the parent’s face all day,” says Dr. Johnson.

MORE SOCIAL WORKERS THE SOLUTIONThe workshop was about more than identifying

the problem and its causes. Facilitators also focused on treatment strategies and resources. In fact, one of the main solutions offered to curb not only substance abuse in schools but also trauma and its consequences is to increase the number of social workers in the education system.

Dr. Johnson says: “we need more social workers because of the increase in these attitudes from students. The teachers cannot do the parenting. That is not their job. The principal cannot do it. Appointing social workers in schools is the future of education.”

He explained that a social worker is capable of handling up to 250 students: “I 100% guarantee that if there is a school with 1,000 students and you appoint four social workers the behaviour of the students will improve dramatically.”

The Social Work Unit is also approaching the issue of substance issue through research. Supported by The UWI’s Research and Publication Fund, the Unit intends to carry out a nationwide data collection exercise in schools, working with the Ministry of Education and the schools’ student support services. The study will select schools with a higher prevalence of substance abuse among students.

The substance abuse workshop was part of the project, although focused on the training aspect for social workers.

This is timely and relevant research as the violence in schools in March alone has brought the issue to the forefront of the public consciousness once more. Perhaps, through the research and engagement exercises of the Social Work Unit, we are moving closer to finding solutions that will not only curb the violent and dysfunctional activity but also heal the emotional wounds of the students involved.

A DRINK BEFORE CLASSSocial Work workshop tackles substance abuse and its violent consequences

B Y J O E L H E N R Y

Wendell C. Wallace

“I 100% guarantee that if there is a school with

1,000 students and you appoint four social workers the behaviour

of the students will improve dramatically.”Dr. Emmanuel Janagan Johnson


FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

Mouth-watering fragrances perfume the air across the temporary village of white tents erected on the field west of UWI’s Main Administration Building, St. Augustine. A brisk wind disperses the scents of avocado, cinnamon, nutmeg, guava, coconut, mango, pumpkin and yes, chocolate. You’d be forgiven for mistaking this for a culinary feast; the lingering aromas are instead all from luxurious, organically crafted, food-based bath soaps, all made by hand in Trinidad and Tobago.

Lower down, booths tempt visitors with specialty chocolates made from Trinidad cocoa, pickles, condiments and wines derived from exotic fruits and vegetables. For gluten sensitive foodies, there is flour from sweet potato, cassava, eddoes, and banana. A cornucopia of plant-based products, some familiar, some completely surprising, beguile visitors – animated children, inquisitive teens and discerning adults alike.

These and many more agri-based products took centre stage at the three-day exhibition “TechAGRI Expo 2017: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation” held in March, the brainchild of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture.

“The reason for this exhibition is to raise the profile of agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago and of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture as the custodian for agricultural learning, research and technology in the region,” explained Dr. Wayne Ganpat, Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture.

He added that there are “secondary objectives” such as getting young people interested in agriculture, getting them to pursue a programme at the Faculty, as well as connecting product developers to potential investors/business partners so that their goods can be further commercialised.

Over the three days of the expo, visitors explored the work being done in agriculture and food throughout the nation, discovering agri-innovations, unique food-based product applications, and the services of entrepreneurs and organisations in the sector.

Dr. Ganpat views TechAGRI as part of his wider mission to revitalise the once vibrant Faculty of Agriculture he took over in 2016, restoring it to its former position as the centre for agriculture research and learning in the region, while contributing to national development through progressive food production techniques.

Seed CapitalTechAGRI Expo proposes a more innovative, profitable food industry

B Y S H E R R Y A N N S I N G H

A major setback to developing the sector is its image problem. Food production is associated with back-breaking work, often in unforgiveable natural conditions, tainted by the legacies of slavery and indentureship. Its financial returns can also be comparatively low compared to other sectors.

While some only see these challenges, others see the opportunities that abound. Dr. Ganpat, for instance, believes the field is wide open for technology-driven innovation, from growing to productivity to processing to marketing.

Indeed such was the buzz generated around techAGRI 2017 that capacity constraints forced the organisers to stop further registration of secondary schools seeking to attend on the opening day. Coming from as far as Moruga, Cedros, Matelot and Tobago, an estimated 2,000 students thronged the West Field exhibition area, among the first visitors to delight in the scents and sights of an exotic range of locally-commercialised agricultural goods.

After foraging the exhibition booths, students were treated to demonstrations of technology in action. Throughout the day, they were taken in groups on tours of the labs and work spaces of the Faculty of Food and

Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Senator Clarence Rambharat speaking at the event.

PHOTOS: TERRY SAMPSON AND MAKANZWA PITA

Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland speaks with an exhibitor from the Agricultural Development Bank. PHOTO: KEYON MITCHELL


Dr. Wayne GanpatPHOTO:KEYON MITCHELL

Agriculture to explore, among other things, the science and practice of aquaponics, hydroponics, tissue culture, vermin-culture, composting, grow rooms, chocolate making and the National Herbarium.

“We’re trying to show them the science behind agriculture,” Dr Ganpat explained. “We want them to see that it is possible to work in agriculture smartly and make a successful career out of it.”

In a sense, TechAGRI represents the convergence of academic research and commerce to fulfill economic wants and needs via innovative applications of home-grown agriculture products.

Applying new technologies can make agriculture sexier, increase farming and investment in the sector and contribute to a more diversified economy.

For decades, the trend in agriculture has been a steadily declining contribution to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the dollar value of agricultural output standing at just 0.3% currently.

The pervasive attitude towards agriculture is overwhelmingly negative. While the demand for agricultural products continues to escalate, young people are not attracted into a profession considered to be “uncool”.

“As a result, most people involved in agriculture are aged. The elderly dominate the sector because they grew up in it but their offspring are not being attracted into farming,” Dr. Ganpat said. “My vision is to change this image into something more interesting. Everyone would benefit from that. We want to see increased enrolment in the Faculty of Agriculture where we offer programmes in Food and Nutrition, Geography, Environmental Studies… the entire eco-system of agriculture.”

Globally, agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry, with thriving sectors in many developed economies, particularly the European Union and the United States. Those economies have the advantage of being heavily subsidised by their governments, keeping production costs down. They also have the advantage of being early adopters of agri-technology.

“They’ve learned that larger land spaces are not mandatory as farmers can use more technology to increase their efficiency and quality. You don’t need a lot of land when you can produce crops just as successfully in a room under lights 24 hours a day,” the Dean said. “They are extensive purveyors of organic farming and vertigrow systems. There

is greater emphasis on safer, more organic and natural products.”

BEAUTY BARS AND COFFEE BEANS It’s Friday evening on the opening day of the Expo, and

the sun is dipping in the West; the tents housing exhibitors have gone soft from earlier rainfall; the clouds have lifted, exposing a crisp freshness in the air. The rush of students had ebbed and a different crowd streams in; a constant flow of after-work patrons. They are blasted by the aromas – sweet, medicinal, balmy, fruity, earthy – finding them just as intoxicating as the earlier visitors.

Just next to one of the booths selling luxury handmade soaps, something else tickles the nose – a single earthy aroma providing a refreshing escape from the olfactory bombardment – home roasted, 100% Trinidad coffee beans and grounds.

“One thing I really want to see is greater awareness of local coffee in Trinidad because a lot of people did not think that we had really good coffee, Floyd Homer, founder of Café Vega told UWI Today in between questions from curious visitors.

He said many Trinidadians misguidedly believed Blue Mountain coffee to be the Gold Standard. Most have not had coffee roasted professionally in Trinidad from the different local varieties. They are unaware of the quality that exists.

His Café Vega line is derived from a single bean, or a single variety from a single location. Most supermarket brands are ‘bulked’ coffees, sourced from different locations. The difference with a single bean is a consistent roast and flavour across different batches.

“I want to make more people aware of what we have right here,” Homer said. “I hope people are prepared to support coffee production and expand it, and rebuild a coffee industry for Trinidad and Tobago.”

Homer’s coffees were previously available through word of mouth only but he seized the TechAGRI expo to launch the Café Vega brand to the national community.

Throughout the exhibition, he said he’s received expressions of interest from several persons with boutique shops and cafes who were interested in representing his brand or using it in their shops.

“Some people even expressed interest in learning about growing coffee to get into the supply side of the business and a few others had an interest in setting up their own

roastery and trying to do coffee of their own. I encouraged everyone. There is room, the market is big enough for everybody,” he said.

Many of the entrepreneurs appear to share this magnanimous view. They implicitly understand that they are involved in something bigger than themselves.

Joanne Raymond of AL Organic, maker of a range of organic based beauty bars, said the sales and brand awareness arising from TechAGRI were not the primary reasons for participating.

“We always looked at it as ‘great we can sell and people will become aware of the products’, but beyond that it’s really good for young entrepreneurs to realise you can think outside of the box and actually make an added value based product and maybe form a small company and start commercial distribution. That’s where we started and that entrepreneurial spirit is what we want to spread among our visitors.”

In similar vein, Ganpat’s end goal is not simply boosting student enrolment in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, but rather national development.

“The Government and the Ministry of Agriculture must be the leaders but we at the Faculty have to be a major player. Our role is human resource development and research. We have a very active research programme, and with the right direction we can make a significant contribution to national food production and development.”

Tied to that objective is the creation of a food secure nation, against a backdrop of dwindling food production, foreign exchange constraints and dependency on external sources for basic food items. He questioned what would occur in the event of an outbreak of disease that affects livestock or wheat crops in the US.

“Would we stop eating bread and roti? Climate change is happening, global politics are uncertain; the time has come for us to be able to stand on our own.”

Ganpat cited the example of domestic milk production as an exemplary model employing hundreds of tiny farmers in a highly-organised collection system.

“If everyone produced a basic amount of food and we organised some sort of system to collect it we’d go a long way in creating food security,” he concluded.

Sherry Ann Singh is a freelance writer


The poet Laureate Derek Walcott who died on March 17, 2017 was from St Lucia, but Trinidad became his other island home shortly after graduating from The UWI, Mona, in 1953.

Trinidad is figured throughout his works, in particular in The Prodigal, which is in many ways a love song to both St Lucia and Santa Cruz where his daughters live. Santa Cruz became in this work a source of images that reflected his intense spiritual relationship to land and to poetry. The immortelle offered a metaphor for heaven and the breadfruit and frangipani became homilies to the beliefs of his people.

Walcott revelled in the use of words and the many double meanings that words have accumulated through their use in the vernacular. He was given to political criticism and had an acerbic wit, in keeping with the tradition of calypso. He ranted at the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and of St Lucia for their treatment of the arts and his condemnation of the rape of Caribbean landscapes by foreign investors and in the name of tourism is well known. He spoke often of the tribulations endured by the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, though there were recurring explosive relations between himself and this flagship company he formed in the fifties. The evening before his funeral Wendell Manwarren paid tribute in a passionate rendition of one of Makak’s speeches from “Dream on Monkey Mountain”. As a performance it demonstrated Walcott’s insistence on remaining true to the Caribbean voice.

Community was of vast importance to him. At the academic celebration of his work hosted by The UWI in 2010, he wept openly. In many ways his response to this Nobel Celebration was an indication of his humility and his understanding of the role of the artist as one who spoke for and on behalf of his people and of the artist as one who was obliged to work hard and shape something new.

In 2015 I asked him whether he had any regrets and his answer was, “I could have been a better writer.” This, from a man who had by then received every honour and acclaim for his poetry, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. The response lends credence to Professor Emeritus Ken Ramchand’s praise for Walcott as a “supreme example of the joy of plain and simple hard work as well as dedication to a calling, which in his case, occupied over 80 years and with that, a humble awareness that no matter what result and reward you have to believe in it and have to strive always towards the unreachable, unnameable ultima Thule.”

He was a man for whom friendship was sacred. Many of his poems speak of such friendships: with Seamus Heaney, and with Joseph Brodsky, two other poet laureates, for example. But he commemorated so many. His penultimate collection, “White Egrets,” remembers many whose toil he saw as sacred work, including August Wilson, Wilbert Holder and Aimé Cėsaire. But with typical generosity he pays tribute to the living amongst whom he numbered poets, scholars, actors and friends.

Derek was a hard taskmaster, as those who worked with him knew well. But he mentored young poets,

B Y J E A N A N T O I N E - D U N N E

including our own graduate Vladimir Lucien. Many of these students visited him in St Lucia and he continued teaching virtually until a short time before his death. At his funeral these students, and poets whose work he had nurtured from St Lucia and elsewhere, and painters such as Jackie Hinkson, lined the aisles in tribute. And it is no small matter that his funeral focused on his relationship with other artists and writers, many of whom like the Trinidadian Robert Antoni were present.

Walcott taught at Boston University after leaving Trinidad, but despite his many departures to different

places such as Italy, the “here” and the “elsewhere” of his existence were never about which was better, or of metropolitan privilege, but rather how each echoed “home.” For him privilege resided in his islands.

He later went on to become Professor of Poetry at the University of Essex where he spent several months every year. There he worked with the Lakeside Theatre on the production of “O Starry Starry Night.” In this play, though most clearly expressed in the St Lucian premier, the human body acts as a spatialisation of experience. The body and its occupation of space is the manifestation of desire, trauma

IN MEMORIUM

Walcott with his two daughters, Professor Elizabeth Hackshaw (left) and Anna Walcott-Hardy, and former Campus Principal Professor Clement Sankat at The UWI Nobel Laureate Celebrations on his 80th birthday.

PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM


Dr Jean Antoine-Dunne is a Walcott specialist andrecently retired as a Senior Lecturer in Literatures in

English and Film at the St Augustine campus.Her book Derek Walcott’s Love Affair with Film,

published by Peepal Tree Press, is due out in October.

B Y J E A N A N T O I N E - D U N N E

Tribute to

and repression. These all appear as the sources of artistic potential and production.

“O Starry Starry Night” pays homage to St Lucian artist, Dunstan St Omer, who died two years ago and as with so many of Derek’s other works, foregrounds the interactive relationship between the arts and his multifaceted talents. Derek was a fine painter and continued painting until almost the end.

His final work in 2016, “Morning, Paramin” was a collaboration between himself and the painter Peter Doig. In a sense it continues in the tradition of “Tiepolo’s Hound” (2000) in which as a painter he meditates on the nature of light and perception. The inclusion of his own paintings in “Tiepolo” engages readers in the debate about the relationship between word and image, but also on the marginalisation of the black in the context of European art.

He wrote essays, many of which have become central to the debate about what constitutes Caribbean art and Caribbean identity. His Nobel speech “The Antilles” has already provided critics and politicians with a language of definition in its imaging of a broken vase:

“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole. The glue that fits the pieces is the sealing of its original shape. It is such a love that reassembles our African and Asiatic fragments, the cracked heirlooms whose restoration shows its white scars.”

It is significant that for the poet this is “the exact process of the making of poetry, or what should be called not its “’making’ but its remaking”. For Derek Walcott was a supreme craftsman. In “Arkansas Testament” he reflects on the artisan-like process of making poetry. But this craftsmanship was of necessity a quest for an echo of the landscape and the asymmetrical nature of life and art in the Antilles. His perpetual search for such a form led to an apprenticeship to many masters, and evolved over the 70 years of his career. It led to a search for new metaphors that would come from the land and history. So for him the word pommerac represented an historic language bequeathed by the colonisers and also signified a vestigial trace of the Aruac presence and the many layers of trauma that have made the Caribbean the rich repository of culture that it is.

This idea is equally present in his plays. At the rehearsals for Steel, he sought to ensure that the very movement of the Caribbean body and the music of the place would shape the production. He brought into one theatrical space the raga and the dance movements of masqueraders and of Shouter Baptists as part of his ongoing attempt to show Caribbean art as syncretic process and as a meeting of different cultures.

Many of his plays did not receive the same recognition as his poetry, though it might be argued that the stage was his great love. But no one could deny the beauty and the success of “The Joker of Seville,” in particular at its Boston performance. “The Joker” exemplified that unique combination of witty social commentary, sexual innuendo, characterisation and beautiful poetic language all united by music and movement. It is equalled only by “Ti Jean” which has seen many incarnations, finally emerging as “Moon-Child” in 2011.

Walcott also wrote film scripts. Many of these are stored in The UWI and University of Toronto archives,

but only two have been produced: “The Rig” and “Haytian Earth.” His work anticipated the now current conversations about the relationship between film, digital and literature.

The long poem, “Omeros,” is filmic in its structure and in this way allows the poet to create a conversation between the major writers of the Caribbean, including Kamau Brathwaite, VS Naipaul and Wilson Harris, whose concept of simultaneity he sought to express through montage. In this work he returns to the debates of the ’60s and ’70s about the importance of Africa. He also pays homage to those influences that he had long acknowledged, from Homer to Yeats and Joyce to Lowell and Chamoiseau. Its multifaceted and polyphonic structure makes it an epic beyond compare.

Derek Walcott’s loss leaves a huge gap that cannot be filled. But his legacy as a man and as an artist remains.

For Professor Emeritus Gordon Rohlehr, “Walcott was a mega mind, an enormous intellect,

which was constantly searching out the pathways we should traverse. He never dabbled but delved deeply into literary imaginaries, into mythic and the folk sensibilities, into the visual as painter and filmmaker, into song as the producer of musicals. Consider for example that our understanding of what he produced would be incomplete until we take into account the over 500 pieces which he wrote on diverse topics in the “Trinidad Guardian” in the six to seven years he spent as a journalist there.”

Walcott’s life and work transcend simple assessments. It is this sense of a complex intervention into the nature of Caribbean art and the sensibilities of the region and his project of giving voice to this multiplicity that may well be viewed as his most enduring gift to the Caribbean.

PHOTOS COURTESY THE DEREK WALCOTT COLLECTION,THE ALMA JORDAN LIBRARY


HISTORY FEST 2017

As 1917 dawned, it heralded a period of great change in world events. It was the beginning of the end of World War I, one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history – a war where even West Indians served, though they were rarely honoured for their contributions.

It was the end of Indian indentureship in Trinidad. After over 70 years and thousands of East Indian migrants coming to local shores, calls to end their sub-human living conditions were finally heeded. It was also a year of turmoil for the Shouter Baptist community as intolerant members of society tried to squash their form of worship. These diverse historical milestones have a common significance.

“They entailed some sort of fight, for liberation or religious persecution, inequality and so forth,” explains Dr. Sherry-Ann Singh, Head of the Department of History at the St. Augustine Campus.

The struggles of these three groups in the turbulent milieu of 1917 Trinidad was the focus of History Fest 2017 held in March. Former department head Dr. Claudius Fergus conceived the idea of History Fest in 2015 to make history more accessible. “The Department thought it was a very good way of highlighting the discipline of history to the larger public with special emphasis on students – CAPE and CSEC students,” explains Dr. Singh.

This year the History Fest committee, led by current Chair Dr. Gelien Matthews, was particularly struck by the significance and conflict which characterised these events of a century ago. Through activities, lectures and presentations, the Department worked to bring these landmark events to life.

The several events expanded on the themes and included “Causes and Consequences of World War I” facilitated by Dr. Karen Eccles, Divisional Librarian in the West Indiana and Special Collections Division. Professor Hazel Gibbs Depeza and Dr. Claudius Fergus highlighted the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance with presentations on the “Growth of the Baptist Faith in T&T” and “The Shouters Prohibition Ordinance of 1917: Constitutional Issues in Enactment and Repeal”. Professor Brinsley Samaroo presented on “Experiences of Indian Indentured Labourers”.

The well-received presentations drew an audience of secondary school students and members of the public. Dr. Singh observed that some of the students were surprised at how much more they learned about indentured labour, a topic which is only lightly covered in their syllabi. Professor Samaroo vividly brought to life the struggles of ancestors who dealt with deplorable conditions, harsh penalties for minor infractions and language barriers that made it harder for them to fight for their rights.

Dr. Eccles discussed many issues which resonate today, including the lead up to imperialism and colonialism. She observed that several students were particularly interested in the Balkans and the terrorist activities that led up to the war. She was blown away by their insightful questions. Some West Indians joined the British Army because of their economic situation and out of loyalty to the British. Some women even joined the war effort. Dr. Eccles cited the examples of Leonide Cipriani who served as a clerk in the London War Office, and her sister Jules who worked in a government munitions factory. Black men who joined often received laborious tasks. They worked on canal defences, barbed wire entanglements and bombs. They also endured racism and poor living conditions.

The presentations on the Shouter Baptists highlighted the group’s struggles to practice their religion against strong opposition from established faiths and the middle class who often reported on their activities to the authorities. According to Dr. Matthews, “They were seen as inferior and closely linked to slavery days and the degradation of people of African descent.”

Why Study History?B Y D I X I E - A N N B E L L E

Soldiers returning home.

PHOTO COURTESY THE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGOYEARBOOK 1916-1918, THE ALMA JORDAN LIBRARY.

A member of the University of the Southern Caribbean debate team. PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM

UWI debate team member makes a point.PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM

Spiritual Baptists in attendance at the Baptist Forum


Dixie-Ann Belle is a freelance writer, editor and proofreader. Search for Belleworks on Facebook or e-mail her at [email protected].

The group resisted. “They ran to the hills and forests,” she said, explaining

how they took their worship underground. “They also fought back when the police arrested them and from the 1920s right up to the 1950s, they fought a campaign to have the ordinance repealed.”

Trade union hero Uriah Butler was the first to lead this campaign. Legislative Council Member, Albert Gomes, called for a committee to investigate the ordinance.

The passion and knowledge of the speakers were complemented by images provided by the National Archives and films like “The Shouters and the Control Freak Empire” by Oyetayo Raymond Ojoade. There were even mannequins dressed in the uniform of the typical World War I soldier and models dressed in saris to depict the dress of the indentured labourers.

On March 16, UWI students going about their business might have been surprised to see a Shouter Baptist Spiritual service going on. The Shouter Baptist attendants who came to the workshop were starting that day’s forum. A crowd gathered to observe the proceedings.

The week of events provided many opportunities for participants to be actively engaged. There was a poster competition and an essay competition for primary school students. During a post graduate history panel, Arti Ramsaroop discussed “Pan-Africanism: An Attempt to Break the Silence of Women in the Movement During the First Half of the Twentieth Century.” Joseph O’Neil presented on “History of the Social, Cultural and Labour Experiences of Women in Tobago 1763–1963. Anne’el Bain spoke on “Supportive Networks amongst Selected Socialist Caribbean and Latin American Countries in the Cold War and Post-Cold War Era” while Tricia Shah explored “Public Health in Trinidad and Tobago in the Post Emancipation Period.”

The final night of activities included a debate between The UWI and the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) students on the topic “Be it Resolved that Studying History is Worth the While.” USC won the debate, skilfully arguing against. It is probably safe to assume that many members of the Department were not in agreement with their stance though all were impressed by their excellent debating skills!

for the Government.Dr. Matthews thinks that studying History can be

valuable to people interested in law enforcement. She explains that the intellectual training – wide reading, synthesis, corroboration and formulation – provides a scope for employment which is significant. “I think if we have more of our police officers... with some kind of grounding in history, we would be better able to put the crime situation together – to puzzle and solve and resolve some of the issues with crime.”

Each Faculty member emphasised that studying History is invaluable to a person’s identity and to the development of the nation. “History is something that lives inside of you,” said Dr. Eccles. “Whatever you do, you have that foundation. You have that Trinidadian foundation. You have that Caribbean foundation. You have a world foundation to know where you fit in...Wherever you go you have some sense of identity.”

According to Dr. Singh,“In order to deal with our present successfully, we need to engage with our past in a very, very aware, pronounced manner.”

Dr. Matthews noted that while History might not exactly repeat itself, it is a useful guide for the path of world events. “It’s a past that walks into the present, and it will certainly walk into the future,” she affirms.

As this year’s festival closed, the Department was already making plans for next year. They are hoping that their efforts will draw more students into the field. “We want History Fest to be a stepping stone, a feeder to whet the appetite of younger students, so that when they are considering programmes for tertiary level education, they will at least give some consideration to History,” said Dr. Matthews.

Dr. Eccles hopes that more faculty members, the stalwarts of the profession, will get the opportunity to guest lecture in schools so that students “can find some kind of personal image of the History Department” that would motivate more of them to pursue this field of study. Dr. Singh is hoping that the festival can be extended to the new South campus.

The faculty expressed their need for more financial support as well as moral support from other departments as well as the Office of the Principal. The combined effort of the various entities could make a change not only in the local study of history, but in our society as a whole.

“Some women even joined the war effort. Dr. Eccles cited the examples of Leonide Cipriani who served as a clerk in the London War Office, and her sister Jules who worked in a government munitions

factory. Black men who joined often received laborious tasks. They worked on canal defences, barbed wire entanglements and bombs. They also endured racism and poor living conditions.”

The growing attitude that studying History is not essential is a cause for concern for the Department. In fact, changing this mindset is a driving force behind History Fest. In recent years, the number of students joining the Department has dropped considerably. The reasons are manifold. Dr. Singh notes that some schools are no longer teaching the subject, focusing instead on science subjects and the scholarships attached to them. Many potential students wonder how marketable they can be with a History degree.

Each of the Faculty members interviewed observed that some don’t realise that studying history opens many career doors. Dr. Singh points out that History majors can go on to be analysts, work in the archives or work

Trinidadian recruits departing from Port of Spain.PHOTO: WEST INDIA COMMITTEE CIRCULAR, ALMA JORDAN LIBRARY

Members of the Indian community in the early 20th Century.PHOTO: MICHAEL GOLDBERG COLLECTION, ALMA JORDAN LIBRARY

Members of an artillery regiment.PHOTO: WEST INDIA COMMITTEE CIRCULAR, ALMA JORDAN LIBRARY

East Indian men.PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS OF

TRINIDAD BY MUIR MARSHALL,ALMA JORDAN LIBRARY


UWI DISCOVERS

South Africa is a country not afraid of its scars. From Apartheid-era sites such as Robben Island, prison to Nelson Mandela and numerous other political prisoners; to the sprawling townships; to the stories of the era that have been immortalised in literature, drama and song; South Africans wear their history with pride.

“Everybody – white, black, coloured, Indian, they are very proud to be South African,” says Afiya Francis, Study Tour Coordinator with The UWI’s International Office. “There is great pride among the people.”

Ms. Francis and a group comprising UWI senior administrators, faculty, current and retired staff, teachers and family members had an incredible opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture of South Africa on a 17-day study tour of the country. The tour, beginning at the end of 2016 and continuing into 2017, was part of the International Office’s “UWI Discovers” series.

“UWI Discovers South Africa” focused on several topics – the history and culture of the country, conflict resolution, and the post-Apartheid experience. One of the most impactful aspects of the trip was the interaction with figures from the anti-Apartheid movement, the movement for gender equality, and the arts and

South AfricaAround the world, close to home


academia. This was facilitated by Professor Rhoda Reddock, Deputy Principal of the St. Augustine Campus, who also took part in the study tour.

“Thanks to Professor Reddock we met a lot of very influential people,” says Ms. Francis. “We shared discussion about their struggles and triumphs.”

At their first stop in Johannesburg, the group was hosted by the Sisulu family – writer and activist Elinor Sisulu, and her husband, well-known national politician Max Sisulu. Max is the son of famed anti-apartheid activists Walter and Albertina Sisulu, two close associates of Nelson Mandela. While in Johannesburg they also visited Soweto, one of the historic centres of resistance against the Apartheid regime.

The UWI study tour continued on to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve and the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site that contains the fossils of near-human ancestors that are over 2 million-years old.

The final stop on the tour was Cape Town, where they were hosted by author, historian and cricketer, Professor Andre Odendaal and women’s rights activist, writer and educator Professor Gertrude Fester. Through Professor Fester, The UWI

For more information onUWI Discovers and the International Office,visit https://sta.uwi.edu/discover/ E: [email protected]

group was able to meet with many of the women who played a role in the movement against Apartheid in Cape Town. Among them was Mrs. Mildred Lesia Ramakaba, a warrior for racial, gender and economic justice in South Africa for over half a century.

One of the most striking aspects of the journey, says Ms. Francis, was the country’s resemblance to Trinidad and Tobago:

“I think a lot of people were very much amazed at how similar South Africa is to T&T, particularly with regard to the ethnic make-up of the country. In terms of the struggles they face, obviously they are not as intense here, but some of the things we had to deal with are similar.”

Started in 2012, UWI Discovers gives students, staff and a cross-section of society an opportunity to visit and learn about countries within and beyond the region. Participants become better versed in several aspects of these societies and the opportunities for the Caribbean to engage in constructive partnerships. “UWI Discovers China” will take place in 2017.


FEATURE

A hospital ward is not a fun place, especially for children. At the pediatric ward of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt. Hope, however, a group of UWI students have selflessly donated their time, effort and creativity to bring joy into the lives of the young patients. They have transformed one of the wards into a fantastical landscape, an otherworldly realm of planets, stars and spaceships for the children’s enjoyment.

They refer to it as the “Star Ward”. “We did it for the kids. And when we do another ward

it will be for the kids again,” says Vishal Bachan, a third-year student in the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

Vishal is the Project Manager of the Art Society of Mt. Hope, a group of remarkable students from the Medical Faculty who have turned their love for art into flourishing events and charitable acts. The refurbishment of the ward, Paediatric Med 1, is their biggest charitable initiative yet and a testament to their hard work and perseverance.

“The ward project was done mainly at nights, on Friday nights or weekend nights,” says Vishal, who describes himself as a “handyman.” The work included cleaning and painting the walls, the installation of custom-made decals, the cleaning of the playroom and redecoration with new tables, new curtains, new toys and the creation of a huge mural occupying an entire wall. It was four nights work in total, from 6pm to 2am, stretched over six weeks because the students had to work around their class and study schedules.

The project was funded entirely by the Art Society, using proceeds from its popular Art Gala and Human Art Project events. In an earlier issue, “UWI TODAY” covered the inspiring story of the Society’s growth from a small student group to hosts of a well-regarded art exhibition that was held this year at the National Academy of the Performing Arts (see https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/archive/october_2016/article16.asp).

Apart from the time, labour and resources invested by the students, who also have to contend with their exacting courses of study, the Society had to overcome the many administrative and bureaucratic hurdles involved in the project. Sofiya Barrow, Past President of the Society and one of the major forces behind bringing the project to fruition, said it was a challenge.

“There were so many odds against us and many times people advised me not to waste my tenure trying to make it happen but to do something else with the money. Getting approved for this project was like a shot in the dark.”

The initial idea for the transformation of the ward came from Dr. Srikanth Rao Venkata, founder and first president of the Art Society. It has taken years for it to become reality, finally coming to fruition under current president Jonathan Edwards.

“Each Art Society president played a crucial role in this very long process,” Sofiya says, “from building the Society itself to forming the charity, to funding, to approval and getting organised, to finally executing it.”

Now that the work is complete, the Society members are pleased.

“Renovating this ward has made both Mt. Hope and national history,” Sofiya says. “No other groups in school have ventured to do such a thing on their own.”

The completed project attracted the interest of hospital officials, Medical Faculty members and the media at the grand opening in mid-March. But for Society members like Vishal, it is the children’s response that matters most.

“They loved it,” he said. “When we were working the majority of parents were very supportive and showed great admiration that we were spending the time to do it. The nurses on the ward were especially grateful for the facelift. And they were amazingly accommodating and supportive during this venture.”

Vishal also had some advice for people who wish to make a difference in society, especially at a time when so much seems to be going so wrong:

“Open your eyes and look around, see what is there to be done and do it. Get together with some friends and make your goal a reality. This project took very long before it could be started but we never gave up. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t cheap and it was difficult to find the time, but we did it. Anyone who wants to do their own project should adopt the same policy. Look at what needs to be done and do it. Because if one child looks at a decal, or one child looks at our mural and smiles, feels better or stops crying, that makes the project worth it.”

Young healers: Members of the Art Society of Mt. Hope speak to the press, from left: Anthony Mansoor, Sofiya Barrow (past president), Jonathan Edwards (president) and Vishal Bachan (project manager).

PHOTOS COURTESY THE ART SOCIETY OF MT. HOPE

A Warm Place inOUTER SPACE



Policy and Research, the Equitable PrescriptionB Y D R . S H A L I N I P O O R A N S I N G H

Dr. Shalini Pooransingh is Lecturer and Unit Coordinator at the Public Health and Primary Care Unit of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

“The development of a society can be judged by the quality of its population’s health, how evenly health is distributed across the social spectrum and the hardship people face as a result of ill-health,” states a 2008 report by the World Health Organisation’s Commission on the Social Determinants on Health.

Seeking to better address the health priorities of the country which would lead to equitable health and healthcare, the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS) under the leadership of the Dean, Professor Terence Seemungal, has embarked on a research initiative to assist the Ministry of Health.

As part of this initiative UWI FMS invited international health policy expert, Professor Michael Clarke for a week in February 2017. Professor Clarke currently works in the Inter-faculty Programme in Public Health in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University in Ontario, Canada. Prior to this, he was the inaugural Director of Global Health Policy at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The programme was built on a systems approach to solve problems that lay “upstream” from the point of care that had their basis in the social determinants of health. Professor Clarke, in addition to his academic duties at Western University, is the Co-Chair for the Policy and Advocacy Committee of the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research.

On the first day of his visit, Professor Clarke delivered a lecture entitled “A health systems approach to public health research.” Key points from his talk included the need for a body to link policy-makers with researchers. He termed this body a “health policy research organisation.” He also emphasised the need for good research and that the costs of prevention are much less than the costs of treatment.

The week of activities organised by FMS included a meeting with Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, where the Ministry and The UWI agreed upon two health priorities for UWI research: antimicrobial resistance and mosquito-borne diseases. Meetings were also held with Deputy Principal Professor Rhoda Reddock and representatives of the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association.

The pattern of diseases is also changing to a chronic disease focus – Trinidad and Tobago

is in the midst of a non-communicable disease epidemic with a high prevalence of obesity,

diabetes and hypertension.

Professor Michael Clarke

Professor Clarke meets with Minister Health Terrence Deyalsingh (at head of the table) and Professor Terence Seemungal (right).

HEALTHCARE

A meeting was held with representatives from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), the UWI Health Economics Unit, the Ministry of Health, the National Insurance Board of Trinidad and Tobago and the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association. At this meeting there was discussion on the changing demography of the population of Trinidad and Tobago with projections of an increasing aging population.

The meeting highlighted the need for a tailoring of the health services to address the care needs of an elderly population and for UWI to develop new courses and programmes to address the changing demography. The pattern of diseases is also changing to a chronic disease focus – Trinidad and Tobago is in the midst of a non-communicable disease epidemic with a high prevalence of obesity, diabetes and hypertension. There was also discussion on a national health insurance system whereby persons should not face hardship at the time of illness in having to pay out of pocket for their healthcare.

Professor Clarke also visited health institutions in the Eastern, North West, South West and Tobago Regional Health Authority administrative areas.

The week culminated in a session to outline the strategic direction for The UWI. This was attended by Professor Andy Knight from the University of Alberta, Canada, former Director of the Institute of International Relations. To adequately address health inequities, sectors other than health need to be involved. Sectors responsible for the environment (air and water quality, noise pollution, sanitation), housing, crime prevention, transport, agricultural practices and food safety, nutrition, education, etc. all play a critical role.

Professor Clarke noted that in his observation, Trinidad and Tobago is not lacking intellectual capacity. However, in achieving our goals, he underscored the need for humility when working with partners. He also reiterated a quote from US President Harry Truman that “it’s amazing what you can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit”.


Everyone who has passed through Trinidad and Tobago’s school system knows someone who fell through the cracks. Maybe their home life was less than stable, maybe they had an undiagnosed learning disability, or maybe they just couldn’t keep up with the fixed pace of the current school syllabus. Dr. Priya Kissoon, Head of the Department of Geography, has headed up a team to find out more about the children who ended up dropping out of school throughout the country.

Working in collaboration with the School of Education (through Director Dr. Jeniffer Mohammed), the Geography Department spearheaded a national research project on primary and secondary school dropouts (or “early school-leavers”). The project engaged with Government ministries, NGOs and the private sector as they trained and employed nearly 100 community-based surveyors to conduct about 1880 in-depth surveys. The goal was to determine empirically what obstacles primary and secondary school early-leavers faced, what they achieved and what could be learned from their experiences.

The project was funded by The UWI Trinidad and Tobago Research and Development Impact Fund, an initiative to support relevant research that addresses society’s pressing developmental challenges and can achieve a recognisable and sustainable impact in the short and medium term.

“We trained about 100 persons to work with an in-depth survey instrument that they could use to conduct interviews within their own networks, turning communities into experts studying themselves,” says Dr. Kissoon.

The collaborative aspect was crucial to the success of a project because of its scale. There were hiccups along the way, and all information had to be carefully combed through and monitored to make sure the proper process was followed. But even with what Dr. Mohammed calls “teething problems,” the data turnout was a resounding success.

One of the more surprising and exciting aspects of the research was the expansiveness of the Geography Department’s data collection. This included spatial analysis that showed the different educational outcomes between urban and non-urban populations (although sometimes the outcomes were very similar). This is a fresh approach and an example of the benefits of multidisciplinary research.

According to official national statistics, about 0.17% of primary-school children fail to sit their school-leaving exam every year compared with 1% of secondary-school children per year (about 1,000 students between Forms 1-5).

Dr. Kissoon and her team wanted to find out more about these children: why they left, where they ended up, how to help them. The project extended throughout the country, with Kissoon herself venturing into prisons to get more information on the dropouts who ended up incarcerated.

Leaving or left behind?School dropouts research shows a more nuanced picture

B Y A M Y L I B A K S H

Amy Li Baksh is a writer, historian and visual artist. She is currently working for the UWI Campus Museums Committee and isdeeply invested in activism centred on the environment, marginalised social groups and animal rights.

“The term ‘dropping out’ is kind of a misnomer,” says Dr. Mohammed.“Most of them are being pushed out, or they fall out.”

RESEARCH

Despite the stereotypes of the “prison pipeline,” the national sample found that only 13% of participants had been in jail at some point. Discussions with those participants even yielded a trend of being more socially and financially stable than the general population of school dropouts, leading the team to question whether or not there was a correlation.

Among the study sample, there were a variety of influences on students that would eventually drop out of school. “The term ‘dropping out’ is kind of a misnomer,” says Dr. Mohammed. “Most of them are being pushed out, or they fall out.” Schools are often not equipped to give these students the extra attention they may need. Dr. Mohammed says that even though projects are being implemented by the Ministry of Education to give teachers the right tools, there are lots of issues limiting their effectiveness.

“Ultimately, reforms in education away from exam-based assessment, investments in career guidance, psychological and social counselling in school and pedagogical training for academically qualified teachers are all essential,” says Dr. Kissoon.

But even if the schools aren’t able to handle these special cases, dropouts often end up returning to complete some level of education or to get certification in some sort of trade. “Almost every person we spoke to understood the

value of education,” says Dr. Mohammed. An overwhelming majority (88%) believed that education is a priority for their children. They acknowledge the constraints in the world of work without secondary school certification, the accomplishments of tertiary level studies, and the demands of advanced industrial, service, and creative sectors for educated employees and entrepreneurs.

The next step for Dr. Kissoon and her team is the completion and release of a film to the public, giving some information on the project and showing the stories as told by the participants themselves. They will also publish a book of findings and the story of how the project was completed. Dr. Kissoon hopes that they can extend the study further to make a dent in “the pervasiveness of social inequality and the stigma associated with dropping out of school.” The team believes that this project has the potential to move the national conversation towards crafting a more inclusive education system that strengthens and supports those at risk of dropping out, so that one day we can close the cracks these students fall through.

Results of this study are available online http:/sta.uwi.edu/rdifund/projects/schooldropouts/. This website hosts minutes, downloadable material, presentations, maps and statistics.


UWI St. Augustine received a very special guest in March – West Indies cricket legend Sir Everton Weekes. Sir Everton, along with Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell, made up the trinity of Barbados-born great batsman referred to as the “three Ws”. He was in Trinidad for the “Sir Frank Memorial Lecture”, held on March 10 at the Central Bank Auditorium, an event to commemorate

the 50th anniversary of the passing of Sir Frank Worrell. Sir Everton was recognised with the Noble Spirit Award at the lecture. His visit to the Campus included a stop at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Ground at the Sports and Physical Education Centre (SPEC). He also met with Director of SPEC, Major David Benjamin and Campus Registrar Mr. Richard Saunders.

CAMPUS NEWS

On Thursday, March 16, 2017, Dr. Luz Longsworth was inducted as the third Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of The UWI Open Campus. Dr. Longsworth is also the third female leader of the Campus. The induction ceremony took place in Belize, where the new Pro Vice-Chancellor is a naturalised citizen, having served in the country through various capacities in academia and business. It was witnessed by over 150 guests including the Governor General of Belize, Sir Colville Young; the Lord Mayor of Belize, Darrell Bradley; government ministers and UWI officials and academics from across the Caribbean. In the photo Dr. Longsworth stands (centre) with members of The UWI Senior Management Team (standing) and her family and friends (seated).

DR. LUZ LONGSWORTH continues tradition of female leadership at the Open Campus

Seminar Focuseson Improving

PROJECTMANAGEMENT

in T&TOver 80 participants – project management professionals, academics, students, and delegates from industry gathered at the Faculty of Engineering of the St. Augustine Campus for a seminar on best project management practices.

Hosted by the Industrial Engineering Office of the Faculty of Engineering in collaboration with the Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS) Chapter and the Education Society (EdS) Chapter of the IEEE Trinidad and Tobago Section, the event was the Ninth Public Seminar on “Project Management Practices in the Caribbean” (PM9 Seminar).

PM9 sought to facilitate awareness and the use of best project management practices and related concepts, models and tools in public and private sector organisations. PM9 was facilitated by Dr. Ruel Ellis, the Chairman of the EdS Chapter.

Presentation topics included using earned value to improve project delivery, project management best practice framework in the tourism sector, public health transformation in project management best practice, and developing an approach for assessing the impacts of smart building strategies in T&T.

Presenters included Mr. Keone Jackman, Project Engineer at Petrotrin; Mrs. Simone Medina, Director of Research and Planning (Ag.) at the Ministry of Tourism; Mr. Kevin I. Thomas, Project Manager of the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development; and Ms. Lollita Kissoondath Singh, Project Engineer at KAIZEN Environmental Services (Trinidad) Limited.

Professor Kit Fai Pun, of the Industrial Engineering Office gave a welcoming address to participants, and Mr. Colin Gopaul, the Vice-Chair of IEEEtt Section delivered a keynote speech. David Drakes, Chair of the IET-Local Network and Kester Gabriel, Counselor of the ASQ, Trinidad and Tobago, also shared some introductory remarks to participants. PM9 was sponsored by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Local Network, and the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Trinidad and Tobago.

“W” for West Indies

Sir Everton WeekesPHOTO: ANEEL KARIM

Sir Everton at SPEC with members of the UWI St. Augustine cricket teams. PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM


CAMPUS NEWS

“There is nothing like a little dance,” says Mr. Andre Largen, Adjunct Lecturer in Dance at the Department of Festival and Creative Arts (DCFA) of the St. Augustine Campus. “I don’t know what a little dance is; dance requires work, effort and practice.”

Mr. Largen was speaking on the importance of encouraging the next generation of dancers to pursue their dreams by

supporting their performances. On April 21-22, DCFA’s Dance Unit hosted one of the most consistent student dance events in Trinidad and Tobago precisely for that purpose: Sole to Sole.

This year’s Sole to Sole took place off campus at the Little Carib Theatre, the historic headquarters of West Indian folk dance.

VICE-CHANCELLORspeaks on reparatory justice at SUNY

SOCA DRAMA: Student players of the Theatre Arts Unit of the Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA) on stage during a performance of “Stick-ey Desires” on March 31. A first of its kind soca musical, “Stick-ey Desires” was created and directed by Louis McWilliams, a Theatre Arts Lecturer. The musical is set in the 1990s in Toco and New York and includes soca tracks from the past and today. DCFA’s theatre students took part in every aspect of the production. “Stick-ey Desires” ran until April 9.

New Student GuildThe students of the St. Augustine Campus have spoken. On March 9, elections were held for the 2017-2018 UWI St. Augustine Guild of Students and change has come. Former Guild Treasurer Jonathan St. Louis-Nahous is the new Guild President Elect, one of many new office holders.

In a statement following his victory, St. Louis-Nahous said “I see this not as a personal victory, but rather a triumph for the students of UWI as we return to the essence of representation.”

The election results followed a week of campaigning that began on Thursday, March 2 and included forums at all five halls of residence as well as a general forum at the Student Activity Centre (SAC). Voting was held at SAC, the Faculty of Law (law students only) and the Medical Science Student Council Office at Mt. Hope (medical students).

“As the students of The UWI we are the key players in a movement towards a socially, economically, and politically sustainable region, and we must seize the potential for powerful impact on the global stage,” St. Louis-Nahous stated. “It is time for us to remember this. There is a call to be answered, a call to be greater.”

Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland congratulatesGuild President Elect Jonathan St. Louis-Nahous.

“Reparations lead to democracy and democracy is founded on the notion of inclusion,” said Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI.

Sir Hilary, who has long been a scholar and advocate for reparations for slavery, was the featured speaker at the first event of the State University of New York’s (SUNY’s) Year of the Caribbean.

In his presentation, “Reparatory Justice and Economic Development: Critical Support for the Social Growth Paradigm in the Caribbean” at the 2017 Boyer Family Lecture, the Vice-Chancellor said:

“The greater the inclusion of more people into the centre of decision-making – black, brown, women, etcetera – the stronger the democracy.”

The Boyer Lecture, held on March 22, was part of SUNY Empire State Colleges annual All College Conference. The conference kicked off the “Year of the Caribbean” at SUNY Empire, the first theme of a new initiative designed to explore specific topics through a variety of activities at the college.

Sir Hilary noted that the 21st Century democratic movement will integrate many marginalised people and that role of education will be to make the community part of the democracy through the “education pipeline” that will help people become part of the economy and make contributions.

Since 2016, The UWI has been strengthening its relationship to the SUNY. In September 2016 the SUNY UWI Centre for Leadership and Sustainable Development was established at the SUNY Global Centre in New York. In February 2017 the Centre hosted its first major public event, a finance and banking symposium that dealt with correspondent banking and its impact on economic development in the Caribbean.

PHOTO: KEYON MITCHELL

Official Guild ElectionResults 2017-2018President: Jonathon St Louis-NahousVice President: Darrion NarineTreasurer: Yenver CaezarSecretary: Priya HarinarinePost Graduate President: Nikkev MarshallPart Time and Evening Representative: Colin AshPublications Committee Chairperson: Justin Clark BisnathStudent Activity Committee Chairperson: Brandon MohammedNational Affairs Committee Chairperson: Jeniece ScottInternational Affairs Committee Chairperson:Eden CorbinGames Committee Chairperson:Reynaldo ChristieFaculty of Food and Agriculture: Videsh MosodeenFaculty of Social Sciences: Renelle KissoonFaculty of Science and Technology: Nicollette La ChapelleFaculty of Humanities and Education: Keva LiverpoolFaculty of Law: Ayanna NorvilleFaculty of Engineering: Jenelle BernardFaculty of Medical Sciences: Matthew Desaine

Student dance takes the stage at SOLE TO SOLE“Attendees (saw) great performances from our student

dancers as well as the work of our budding young choreographers,” said Largen, who is also the Artistic Director of the Little Carib Theatre Dance Company.

He spoke about the drive of the students and the need to keep dance alive:

“They are here because dance is their passion. And as long as you have a passion for something you will do it well. We have students that are actually going on to look for scholarships to pursue dance. This is why we must support them. The dance community in Trinidad and Tobago is quite small. A lot of people still think dance is an extra-curricular activity. Dance can be a career.”

Sole to Sole has grown from a showcase of the Dance Unit’s certificate students to include Bachelor of Arts students and members of the DCFA’s Festival Dance Ensemble. Finalists from the Secondary Schools Dance Festival also perform at the event. The dancers perform a mix of student and lecturer choreography.

Sole to Sole took place on April 21-22 at the Little Carib Theatre. For more information contact [email protected].

PHOTO COURTESY OF DCFA.


UWI GAMES 2017 May 24-June 2UWI Cave Hill, Barbados The UWI Games is the biennial competition among the St. Augustine, Mona, Cave Hill and Open Campuses. This year the games will be held at The UWI Cave Hill Campus in

Barbados. Approximately 500 athletes from across the Caribbean will take part in basketball, football, tennis, swimming, table tennis, track and field, volleyball, cricket, netball and six-a-side hockey. Competition in all sports will involve both male and female participants except for cricket and netball, which will be male only and female only respectively. For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/TheUWIGames/.

UWI TODAY is printed and distributed for The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, through the kind support of Trinidad Publishing Co Ltd, 22-24 St Vincent Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies.

UWI TODAY welcomes submissions by staff and students for publication in the paper. Please send your suggestions, comments, or articles for consideration to [email protected]

UWI TODAY WANTSTO HEAR FROM YOU

UWI CALENDAR of EVENTSAPRIL – JUNE 2017

DAOC INTENSIVE COURSE ON BRAZILIANFOREIGN POLICY IN THE 21ST CENTURYApril 25-26 Institute of International RelationsUWI St. Augustine Campus

The Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC) presents the “Intensive Course on Brazilian Foreign Policy in the 21st Century” facilitated by Professor Paulo Gustavo Pellegrino da Costa (Professor of International Relations and Pro-Rector for Cooperation and International Relations, Federal University of Amapa, Brazil). The course takes place from 9 to noon and 1.30 to 4.30 pm at the Institute of International Relations (IIR), Lecture Room 1 on both days. Registration rates are: $1000 – per participant, $500 – UWI staff, $250 – UWI students.

To register, please contact DAOC at662-2002 exts: 85362/85360/85359 or email [email protected].

UWI INSTYLE FASHION SHOW May 7National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port of Spain The Office of Institutional Advancement and Internationalisation (OIAI) and Division of Student Services and Development (DSSD) present the UWI inStyle Fashion Show – a fundraiser showcasing leading local fashion designers’ Summer 2017 resort and ethnic-inspired collections. The fashion show takes place from 6 to 9 pm at NAPA. This event was created to generate much needed funding to support student bursaries at the St. Augustine Campus as well as to celebrate the contributions of Caribbean people through fashion. Tickets are priced as follows:General Admission – $200 | Special Reserve – $300 | VVIP – $500. For more information, please visithttps://sta.uwi.edu/news/notices/notice.asp?id=14183.

18TH ANNUAL SALISES CONFERENCE April 26-28 Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Port-of-Spain The Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) presents their 18th annual conference under the theme, “Small Nations, Dislocations, Transformations, Sustainable Development in SIDS”. The conference takes place at the following times: April 26: 6 to

9 pm, April 27 and 28: 8.30 am to 5.30 pm at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad. There will be a Distinguished Lecture by Professor James A. Robinson, 2017 Sir Arthur Lewis Distinguished Lecturer, on the evening of April 27. There is no registration deadline and fees are as follows: Academic US$300, Student US$100, Corporate/Government US$600 (full registration). For more information, please visit http://sta.uwi.edu/conferences/17/salises/.

CALL FOR PAPERS: 36TH WEST INDIANLITERATURE CONFERENCE May 19 (Submission deadline)Online

The UWI St. Augustine’s Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies (LCCS), has issued a call for papers for the 36th Annual Conference on West Indian Literature under the theme, “Affect and Ethical Engagement”. The conference takes place October 4 to 7 at the Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC). The deadline for submission of abstracts is May 19. For further information about the conference, please email [email protected].

INSPIRE. INNOVATE. GO GLOBAL. ALJGSB CONFERENCE May 5Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Port of Spain The Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business (ALJGSB) presents the Distinguished Leadership and Innovation Conference (DLIC) under the theme, “Inspire. Innovate. Go Global”. Challenge your potential to be innovative, take your leadership to new heights and business to the international playground with Jim Collins, Sir Ken Robinson and Pankaj Ghemawat. The conference takes place May 5 at Hyatt Regency Trinidad. For full details on registration and more, please visit http://www.dlictt.com/.

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